Ex-pols assembled for alien 'hearing'

The Paradigm Research Group, the organization behind the White House petition that ultimately earned a dissenting response from the Obama administration, is this week hosting a “ citizens hearing” on extraterrestrial life. Set to appear are former politicians such as Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Alaska), Reps. Darlene Hooley (D-Ore.), Merrill Cook (R-Utah), Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Mich.) and Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.). The former politicians are being paid for their appearances.

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“What they’re going to do is hold a hearing that the United States Congress hasn’t held since 1968,” PRG’s Stephen Bassett told POLITICO. “The issue is the extraterrestrial presence, the extraterrestrial phenomenon. It’s real. It’s a fact. It’s been proven many times over. … If Congress won’t do their job, the people will.”

Bassett says the five-day conference will cost $600,000 (“from a backer who wanted the truth out,” he says) and “is the biggest advocacy event ever held on this issue.”

He concedes, however, that the participating politicos might not necessarily believe in extraterrestrial life.

“I don’t know and I didn’t ask,” he said. “That wasn’t a personal criteria. … I think they think it’s an interesting project. … They have an open mind, I assume.”

But Bassett believes deeply that plenty of elected officials do believe.

“A significant number know it’s true simply from their own personal research. They know it’s true because it simply makes sense. They know it’s true because they’ve been tipped off and they won’t talk about it publicly because they’re simply afraid.”

“If asked on camera by their name, they probably wouldn’t” admit they believe, he said. “Because the government imposed a truth embargo on this issue. The government’s spent a fortune trying to undermine this issue and withhold it from the American public since the late 1940s, for national security reasons.”

“You would not believe what the United States Congress isn’t told about what goes on in the military intelligence world. They have become virtually irrelevant.”